Focussing on providing fun activities at an affordable price is the proposition that has brought XOCHI success over the past four years. Killian Debusscher started small and steadily grew his offering while maintaining a reasonable price for rentals. Recently, he started using Booqable, and he has been able to make cost and time savings that allow him to keep prices low.
XOCHI
Killian started renting out laser guns to youth organizations as a sole proprietor in 2018. He focused on providing fun activities for children at a price that made them affordable for youth organizations that are often on a tight budget. This enabled him to establish his rental business in the local community and gain and favorable reputation among his peers.
Then, in January 2022, he grew the company enough to begin trading under a different name, and he chose XOCHI. Meanwhile, he grew his offering to include more diverse products like bubble football, gel blasters, silent disco earphones, water guns, and slush puppy machines. He has also expanded into custom t-shirts and hoodies as an extra perk for renting from him.
XOCHI operates on a pick-up and drop-off model, allowing customers to collect their items from a specific location 24/7. This is not only customer-friendly, but it saves him time and reduces costs by not needing to employ extra staff to operate it. This has been critical to maintaining a lower rental price while offering a greater selection of fun activities.
Keeping track of growing inventory
Of course, no business grows without some issues along the way, and XOCHI is no different. Once the inventory began to grow, Killian found it more and more challenging to keep track of what was rented out and what he had available. This was a manual process and relied on staying on top of inventory levels at all times, which was a time-consuming process.
In addition, a growing customer base brought with it more difficulties keeping on top of who has paid and who hasn’t. This is particularly important when you work with a pick-up and drop-off system, as there are no manual checks that are made when customers pick up their items. You can imagine Killian’s challenges in keeping up with bookings and payments.
Finally, creating and sending confirmation emails and invoices manually became a bigger and bigger task. As XOCHI’s offering and reputation grew, their bookings also grew. What used to be a simple task became more and more complex for Killian to manage. This also extended to accounting as he had no centralized system to keep track of finances and documents.
A visual overview
Killian decided that he needed rental software that combined bookings, inventory management, documents, and accounting. During his search, he came across Booqable, and it suited his needs perfectly. He can now get a complete visual overview of what stock he has available on a specific date, making it much easier to track his inventory and with less time expense.
He now gets an email for every booking, and he can log in to Booqable, check the order, and send out a confirmation. He can then follow up with an invoice that is automatically generated when an order is booked, allowing him to check it quickly and send it to his customers. Furthermore, he can see who has paid and send out reminders to those who haven’t.
Since he started using Booqable, Killian has noticed an increasing number of bookings and fewer cancellations. Thanks to being able to keep track of bookings and payments accurately. This has also resulted in him spending less time on accounting and administration. Resulting in an increase in profit and reduced time expense, improving the revenue of XOCHI.
Growth and expansion
Now that Killian has complete control over his rental business and can automate time-consuming tasks, he has his sights set on the future. He is planning to invest in more of his current products and continue to expand the range he offers. He is also planning to get his own location that customers can book out for fun activities alongside renting products.
Thanks to Booqable, and the features mentioned above, he can do more of what he loves. Killian also likes using the mobile app to check in on orders that need to be picked up and returned throughout the day. Meanwhile, his customers love how easy it is to book and the fast follow-up they receive on their bookings.
